By the mid-23rd century, the planet had reached the development of Earth's 20th century. Technology included radio communications, road system and powered transportation (such as the Jupiter 8), but no atomic power. Gladiatorial games became televised. With each century, even slaves received rights to medicine and government payments in their old age; the Empire eventually managed to stop rebellions and even wars for four hundred years, achieving stability.

The Romans believed in a pantheon of gods, but a nascent movement known as Children of the Son, a parallel to Christianity on Earth, started to be embraced by gladiators, slaves, and even senators, disrupting the stability of the conservative Empire.

Captain James T. Kirk and the crew of the Enterprise visited the planet 892-IV six years later, on stardate4040.7, after investigating the debris of the Beagle. They were held captives both by fugitives and later the proconsul and Merik. The Enterprise managed to escape and speculated that the new religion might bring the transformation of the Empire, much like Christianity did to the Roman Empire. (TOS: "Bread and Circuses")

This planet was described in the The Worlds of the Federation as being very similar to Earth, to the point that the shape of its continents and other planets of its solar system were nearly identical. Both the original and the remastered version of "Bread and Circuses" showed a very different continental arrangement. This work established the indigenous name of the planet as Magna Roma.

According to Star Trek: Star Charts (pg. 54), FGC-892 IV was the fourth planet in the FGC-892 planetary system. The official name of the government was the Roman Empire. It was a non-aligned world that hadn't yet become warp capable. The planetary capital was Rome. The dominant species were the humanoid citizens and barbarians. In 2378, there were an estimated 8.6 billion people living on the planet. The society's technology was nearly equivalent to the mid-20th century on Earth.

The planet was revisited in the novel The Captains' Honor set 100 years after the encounter by the original Enterprise crew. The novel detailed how the alternate Rome conquered their world and explained that the Romans were now Federation members and were participating in galactic affairs utilizing at least one Constitution-class starship, the former USS Farragut renamed the USS Centurion, and ran according to their own methods and principles.